China adheres to the diplomatic policy of “treating neighboring countries as friends and partners.” To help assure the stability of neighboring countries and promote regional cooperation, China put a priority on its efforts in 2002 to promote good-neighborly relations with neighboring countries. In April 2002, China held the third annual meeting of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace. In June 2002, Chinese President Jiang Zemin attended the first leaders’ meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. During the meeting, Jiang Zemin held bilateral meetings with leaders from Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and other countries. Those bilateral meetings played a constructive role in easing tensions in the regions concerned and accelerating regional peace.

China endeavored to promote East Asian regional cooperation and made a breakthrough in perfecting the organizational set-up of ASEAN-China (10+1) and ASEAN-China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (10+3). Premier Zhu Rongji attended the ASEAN meeting held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in November 2002. China and ASEAN signed the Framework Agreement on China-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and decided to build a China- ASEAN free trade area by the end of 2010. In addition, all sides concerned signed the Declaration on the Code of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and released the Joint Declaration on Cooperation in the Field of Non-Traditional Security Issues. In April and September, Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao and Chairman Li Peng of the NPC Standing Committee visited Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In May, China established diplomatic relations with the newly-founded Democratic Republic of East Timor.

The year of 2002 saw the steady development of the friendship between China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea under the guideline of “inheriting tradition, facing the future, promoting good-neighborly relations and strengthening cooperation “ established by the leaders of the two countries. The year 2002 marked the 10th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Republic of Korea, with various activities on both sides acknowledging the deepening understanding and bilateral relations between the peoples of both countries. In October, between sessions of the 10th Informal Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), President Jiang Zemin met with President Kim Dae-jung of the ROK. In April, Premier Zhu Rongji met with Premier Lee Han-dong of the ROK who came to China to attend the first annual meeting of the Bo’ao Asian Forum in Hainan Province. Chairman Li Peng of the NPC Standing Committee also met with Lee Man-sup, Speaker of the National Assembly of the ROK who came to China to attend the third annual meeting of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace.

Strides were made in 2002 in the traditional friendly relations between China and Vietnam, Pakistan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Nepal, Mongolia with President Jiang, Premier Zhu and other Chinese leaders making visits to several of these countries. Nepalese King Gyanendra, Lao Prime Minister Vorachit, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and Mongolian Prime Minister Enkhabayar visited China at various times in 2002. Relations between China and India were deepened. In early 2003, Chairman Than Shwe of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar visited China.

The “Asian Debt-Relief Plan” carried out by China was welcomed by neighboring countries. In early 2002 when Chairman Hamid Karzai of the Afghan interim government visited China, President Jiang announced that China would provided US$150 million in aid to Afghanistan.